I picked up Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad yesterday on Steam and I spent the better part of the evening trying to play it. While I see where the game has value, and I acknowledge that if I put more time into it I might come to enjoy it, I understand why games like Call of Duty and Battlefield are so aggressively player friendly.
Truth be told, I probably did myself a disservice by jumping straight into multiplayer, but when such a big deal had been made about the online environment in the first game I figured it would be prudent to check out the meat of the game. It wasn’t until I bled to death in the first four seconds and couldn’t figure out how to respawn that I realized that Red Orchestra 2 really wasn’t going to hold my hand. At all.
After being sniped from all over the map and bleeding everywhere, I thought that the single-player would have a decent tutorial, which I also managed to fail. Red Orchestra 2 has bullet drop physics, so you need to adjust your sights to account for gravity’s effect on your leaden projectile. I made it all the way to the sniper rifle before I started getting frustrated with it and quit. I tried multi for another few minutes but the brutal health system meant that everyone in my game just spent the entire time camping and any room or area that didn’t have at least three walls to hide behind became a kill zone.
To be fair, Red Orchestra 2 does some really cool things like first person cover and making you weigh your gun’s magazine or clip to decide whether or not to reload, but playing it made me really appreciate how much some games do to help you out. While I don’t like to think I’m a console noob, I really started to miss some of the things I take for granted like crosshairs, heads-up displays and, forgive me, regenerating health.
Has anyone else been playing Red Orchestra and do you have any tips on how to survive? Do you just want to laugh at me? Go!
Ha Ha, yeah. RO2 does not hold your hand and since you’ve never played the original (which was even less friendly) you should really try playing through the singleplayer. The training is kind of annoying with how far some of the targets are for the rifle but once you get past that all the missions are basically just a simulation of what multiplayer is like, at least for the territories game mode. The AI is pretty bad so it’s a good way to kind of learn how things work without having to worry too much about getting your head blown off every 2 seconds after spawning. As far as multiplayer goes if the objective based gamemodes are too daunting for you try getting into firefight, which is basically just TDM with a CoD like spawn system. I personally don’t like it much because it kind of encourages you to do everything RO normally doesn’t, but if you want something simple to kind of work your way into the more complex aspects of the game it’s a good place to start.
When i got into the beta i died a lot. When i say a lot, i mean i would die 15 seconds after spawning because i was playing it like a regular FPS. To succeed at this game take it slow and try to learn the maps just enough to know where good spots for shooting and where the most high traffic areas are. Trust me, after i did this i actually became a ton better. Also if you want to get even better learn the strengths and weaknesses of each class and weapon. One you know how to use the weapons right you will be a ton better. I guess it is just a matter of sticking with it through the frustration and having the patience to really learn the game.
Well the first tip for any game on the PC is to go into the settings and look at the key bindings. This will help you familiarize yourself with the mechanics a little and you can set up your own control scheme to make things more comfortable.
When you get into a multiplayer match try to play TE (territory), it is quite easy to learn once you look at your map and learn the flow of your teams movements and deaths. You will probably get to see the whole map a few times and you can respawn unlike countdown.
As for actual tips on what to do while playing, find cover where you don’t see your team dropping like flies. Do several quick peeks and look at all the windows and doors and other pieces of cover your enemy could find useful to them. If you see someone, make sure to not stick out for too long and try and pick them off quickly. If they find you out then move somewhere else(without them knowing), and from there you can continue to try and kill them or just get to a place where they can’t kill you. If you don’t see anyone with your initial peeks from cover then look some more with prolonged looks. Make sure to check helmets sticking out and the rooftops. If you still don’t see anyone, then move up, or if you are an officer then you can throw smoke and make it even easier to advance, even if there are enemies trying to get you. A lot of this may seem like camping, but it is just being as cautious as possible, just like real life.
Once you have gotten behind enemy lines, there are some different strategies to use. If close quarters, riflemen should always run with their melees charged around corners. The enemy shouldn’t be expecting you and you will usually kill them in 1 or 2 hits (do this a lot more if you have the bayonette :p). If you have an smg then you can still use the same tactic, but you can use classic methods from other fps’ to clear rooms and check corners, iron sights are preferable but if they are point blank use hip fire.
If you are behind enemy lines and it’s a big open map try and find a place where you can pick off advancing enemies. This will get you kills and help your team advance. You don’t want to stay there very long if the server has the setting where you are pointed towards your killer’s direction after death.
Hope these tips helped. If you have any questions just ask.
I’m interested in more “realistic” or “hardcore” games, I just don’t have any friends who feel the same way. Lately I’ve been playing CS without a crosshair and that’s made for a fresh challenge!
While I haven’t played RO2, I have played a lot of Project Reality, which has a similar idea behind it: a more realistic FPS. I don’t really like to compare those with other FPSs like COD or Halo. They really are very different games, and should be played differently. For example, PR is a squad-based game. If you lone wolf, you die. No exceptions I’ve ever seen. While COD and Halo are made to lone-wolf, and I’ve hardly ever seen real team playing from any online match (even the “team games” – you only focus on killing half the people).
So I guess you really just have to look at and play the games differently. Learn some new strategies.